Finding Nemo: Finding the Human Soul
by Nothing Really Specific
Summary: A Speech written for The Walt Disney Company and Pixar Animated Studios. A First Draft. "Finding Nemo, if nothing else, teaches us that there is a future, that there is a reason to hope, and that in the end, when it's all over, we'll will have found all the things that we have looked for." A speech dedicated to the world that talks about humanity and family. PLEASE REVIEW


"_Finding Nemo: _Finding the Human Soul"

A short speech written for The Walt Disney Company and Pixar Animated Studios

A piece dedicated to the world.

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It isn't difficult, on what I am about to say although some may disagree, but the amount of power and emotion that has been brought into recent film is astonishing. The timeless characters, the powerful instrumentation, the beauty of life. These are elements that two companies, one a senior giant, the other, a still relatively young powerhouse of imagination, conjure up every single year in what is perhaps one of the greatest collaborations in film history.

When _Finding Nemo_ first came out in 2003, I honestly had no idea on what it meant. I just thought of it as a simple story about a father looking for his son accompanied by one of the most beautiful pieces of music by Thomas Newman that I have ever heard. Looking back on the film, ten years later, I understand what the film really preaches.

_Finding Nemo_ to me, is more than just a film. To me, it is an accurate representation on what my father would do to save me if I needed to be. Go the distance of the mile and then some to see me home. There is even more to it than that.

The film teaches you on what the human soul is, on what humanity is. Humanity, in my dictionary, is the universal concept that is understood by all men, to be an everlasting brotherhood, an unmoving relationship with friends, a lasting bond between parents and their children, and one chance. The chance to believe in something greater, to reach for something higher, to hope for a better world and a brighter future. That's humanity. The belief that we can continue to do things that no one has done before. That's the beauty of human beings. We are constantly looking, constantly hoping, and constantly pushing the boundaries of the impossible. That's on what Pixar did in 2003. Showcased the power of humanity in a film that was made for children, but was speaking to adults, at a time when the world was beginning another war, and suffering the aftermath of a tragedy two years before, it says:

_The world isn't dark, there is no darkness here. The sun rises every morning and the stars shine every night. Sometimes you may not be able to see them, but they are there, and they always will be as long as you have hope for your fellow man, as long as you believe that the world doesn't end when your life takes a turn for worse, that the sun will never shine again because there is a cloudy day. Teach these things to yourself and then to your children. For they see this film and think of how wonderful it is, you see this film and think of how true it is. _

I took a film class the first semester of college, during the last week of the class we talked about animation and how it was mainly seen as a medium built for children. Every other country in the world has animation for both children and adults except for the United States. The United States has few animated shows for adults (Family Guy, Bob's Burgers, American Dad, The Simpsons, Archer, and Robot Chicken just to name a few). Although the list may seem long, it is incomparable to the massive amount of animated children's shows that are currently in syndication. I would like to say to my professor that this idea is wrong. The idea that animation is a medium built for children. The correct term is, a medium built for families.

The reason I tell you this is to not change anything about the system, but to say to you that there is something wrong. We as human beings have lost a sense of humanity and in doing so we have lost a sense of family. Of all the shows that are television at the moment, only a handful of channels are dedicated to children. There aren't really any family channels. ABC Family should be renamed to Drama About Dysfunctional Families Channel. Every single show on that channel is depressing, adult oriented and far from being family.

There are still wars, there is still disease, there is still hunger, there are still people who are homeless, or sick, there are those who don't even have access to the Internet. Some people say that we can't do anything about these problems, that we shouldn't be concern. Yes we can do something about it and it's a crime that we're not concerned. We should be very well concerned because our brothers and sisters are out there. Our soldiers, our civilization, the civilization of men. Men who are experiencing what we wish not to, what we have nightmares about. The problem is that we're lazy. We're just too lazy to do anything about it, to fix the problem. We're hoping that someone else will take the burden. That's not humanity. That's not brotherhood. That is society's culture, not the human one. Society's culture, is simply, the ideas of mainstream Hollywood, Wall Street, and the banking idea of money and acquiring more of it, the idea of complicating the simple, and letting it control life. I'm not saying that society's culture is a bad concept. It can actually be a good thing, the problems arise when there is too much of society's culture and not enough of the human culture (humanity).

How does all of this tie in with _Finding Nemo_ and Disney and Pixar? Most of you would say that he's just stating his political or social beliefs and just putting it on here to get it out there and he's not using anything correctly. Actually I'm here to congratulate the simple idea that Disney and Pixar have carried throughout their existence. The simple idea of humanity.

Someone once told me and I quote, "Disney's values don't matter anymore." What a ludicrous statement. Times change, values do not. Technology to do the work changes, the passion and drive to do the work does not. The beauty of The Disney Company, is the values that Mr. Disney set back in his day. The simple value of humanity and this simple value, carried on into Pixar, and is reflected beautifully in _Finding Nemo_.

This film to me, is more than just a film, but rather, a calling card for humanity, for fatherhood, forever making the statement that the bonds between a father and son and the love that they share can be passed out into the world, making it beautiful and worthwhile to live in.

With _Finding Nemo_, The Walt Disney Company and Pixar changed the world, and reminded us of what it means to love, to cherish every single moment, to see the world as something of a rare occurrence, and the importance of family. Which is on what humanity really is, a family.

It doesn't take much to change the world, it just takes people with ambition to do it, and you people, this great place, has done it over and over. But the one thing that you change the most is the human heart and for me, it started at the end when Nemo rides off with Mr. Ray and that last note hits. Those notes, those three seconds of bliss, help me understand the importance of this film, and what it says about humanity. This ten year old soon to be eleven year old film, _Finding Nemo_, if nothing else, teaches us that there is a future, that there is a reason to hope, and that in the end, when it's all over, we'll will have found all the things that we have looked for.

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This is a first draft. I will write a second and clean it up later.

Happy 2014


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